Linux storage management tool Stratis 3.9.0 adds online encryption and cache-less pool startup

Stratis is a tool for configuring pools and filesystems with enhanced storage functionality within the existing Linux storage management stack. It focuses on a command-line interface, an API, and an automated approach to storage management. It builds on existing components, including device-mapper, LUKS, XFS, and Clevis.

Stratis can configure encrypted or unencrypted storage pools with one or more filesystems, without requiring knowledge of underlying storage layers or commands.

Linux includes several storage technologies that provide advanced functionality for accessing and storing data. Each technology has its own command-line syntax, APIs, options, and logging.

By providing a unified CLI and API for setting up complex storage stacks, Stratis simplifies volume and filesystem management and reduces the need to learn each individual storage technology.

What’s new in Stratis 3.9.0

Stratis 3.9.0 consists of stratisd 3.9.0 and stratis-cli 3.9.0 and introduces two major new features.

This release adds support for in-place encryption, decryption, and reencryption of pools after creation.

“With Stratis 3.9.0, it is possible to reencrypt a pool, i.e., to change the key used to encrypt the pool, a task that may be performed as a housekeeping measure or in the case a key is known to have been compromised,” Stratis team wrote.

Stratis 3.9.0 also allows a pool to start without its cache by instructing stratisd not to configure it. This is useful when cache devices are missing or unusable. Restoring the cache requires adding new cache devices to the pool.